Eric Holder

Alex Wong/Newsmakers

News about Eric Holder, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Mar. 30, 2015

Delayed vote on nomination of Loretta E Lynch to succeed Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr as head of Justice Dept is putting Senate Republicans in bind, showing how difficult navigating politics will be for new Republican majority; Lynch is qualified and palatable to many Republicans, save for her support of Pres Obama's policies, yet holding up her confirmation leaves Republicans stuck with Holder, whom they despise. MORE

Mar. 9, 2015

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr warns during speech to veterans of civil rights era in Selma, Ala, that access to polls is under threat due to state laws and weakening of federal Voting Rights Act that resulted from 2013 Supreme Court decision; speech occurs before commemorative march across Edmund Pettus Bridge to mark 50th anniversary of violent stand off between police and protesters that resulted in passage of Voting Rights Act. MORE

Jan. 29, 2015

Loretta E Lynch, top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, appears before Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on her confirmation as United States attorney general; questions on Republican-controlled committee are cordial and show little opposition to her; criticism of Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr, however, dominates hearing. MORE

Jan. 28, 2015

Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee is set to question Loretta E Lynch, Pres Obama's choice to replace Attorney Gen Eric H Holder Jr; if confirmed she would be nation's first African-American attorney general. MORE

Jan. 16, 2015

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr calls for better systems to track number of times police officers across country are fired at or fire their weapons; says better data would help to quantify number of injuries and deaths that occur at hands of police officers, as well as attacks on police, in effort to help restore trust between law enforcement and American public. MORE

Jan. 15, 2015

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr fortifies protection of journalists' phone records, notes or emails in revisions to rules concerning how and when prosecutors can subpoena journalists; Holder first began reviewing news media guidelines in 2013, and in 2014 made it significantly more difficult to demand records, notes or emails from news organizations. MORE

Jan. 13, 2015

Profile of Loretta E Lynch, Pres Obama's nominee to succeed Eric H Holder Jr as attorney general, who differs from Holder in that she is more a traditional prosecutor than a civil rights advocate; African-American who grew up in the segregated south, she went on to graduate from Harvard Law School in 1984. MORE

Dec. 13, 2014

United States Atty Preet Bharara recommends that Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr approve subpoena for CBS reporter Richard Bonin to testify at terrorism trial over bombings by Al Qaeda in 1998; Holder already faces deadline over whether to force New York Times reporter James Risen to testify in leak trial of former Central Intelligence Agency officer. MORE

Dec. 13, 2014

Attorney General Eric H Holder Jr speaks with police and community members in Chicago about law enforcement practices, his latest stop in nationwide tour that coincides with heightened national discussion about how police officers use force. MORE

Oct. 31, 2014

Push for more alternatives to incarceration has become a top issue for United States Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr as he enters his final months in office; programs offering counseling and supervision, rather than prison terms, are widely used in state courts but have not caught on at federal level. MORE

Oct. 30, 2014

Editorial supports Atty Gen Eric Holder Jr's new guidelines addressing search warrants of reporters’ records but holds wording needs to be clarified; points out guidelines include some valuable changes, but also contain central flaw that requires prompt correction. MORE

Oct. 22, 2014

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr's success in reversing the Bush administration’s emphasis on trying terrorism suspects in secret prisons or at offshore military tribunals may be one of his most significant achievements. MORE

Oct. 18, 2014

Senior FBI and Justice Department officials have questioned Atty Gen Eric Holder's decision to assign investigation of 2012 attacks on American embassy in Benghazi, Libya, to office of Ronald C Machen Jr, United States attorney for the District of Columbia; at issue is fact that Machen's office has less experience than other US attorneys' offices in trying terrorists. MORE

Oct. 9, 2014

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr calls for wide-ranging reviews of police tactics and training; comments come during Little Rock, Ark, conference, attended by dozens of mayors and police chiefs, to discuss race relations and policing in United States in the wake of protests in Ferguson, Mo. MORE

Sep. 30, 2014

Joe Nocera Op-Ed column argues Justice Department has largely failed to prosecute cases stemming from financial crisis, despite claims of outgoing Attorney General Eric H Holder Jr; argues that Holder's legacy is a mixed bag, but that his actions in relation to financial fraud have amounted to little more than public relations. MORE

Sep. 28, 2014

Serge Schmemann Quick History column reflects on events of week, including Pres Obama's speech at United Nations General Assembly, resignation of Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr, China's sentencing of Uighur academic Ilham Tohti and strategy for confronting Islamic State militants. MORE

Sep. 26, 2014

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr is resigning from his post, leaving Obama administration with an election-season scramble to find his replacement; was nation's first African-American attorney general, and provoked ire of Republicans as Obama's chief liberal warrior; although there are several frequently mentioned candidates to replace Holder at Justice Dept, confirming his successor could be a political nightmare. MORE

Sep. 26, 2014

United States Atty Gen Eric H Holder sought to emulate his hero Atty Gen Robert F Kennedy as he made civil rights centerpiece of his six-year tenure leading Justice Dept; Holder also resembles Kennedy in that he has frustrated and confounded even his staunchest allies for his views on civil liberties. MORE

Sep. 26, 2014

Editorial assesses Attorney General Eric Holder Jr's legacy, in light of his decision to resign; contends that while Holder has staked out strong and laudable legal positions on some of most contested issues in modern American society, his record is marred by role Justice Dept played in matters of secrecy and national security under his leadership. MORE

Sep. 25, 2014

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr is supporting class-action lawsuit filed by New York Civil Liberties Union against Gov Andrew Cuomo and New York that accuses state of providing inadequate representation to poor defendants; if suit is successful, state could be forced to take over the public-defense system, which is now run by county governments. MORE

Sep. 15, 2014

Attorney Gen Eric H Holder Jr, during his first year in office, put new limits on when government can dismiss lawsuits in name of protecting national security; Holder has now broad authority to do just that, intervening in defamation lawsuit against United Against Nuclear Iran, advocacy group pushing for tough sanctions against Tehran; government says case should be dropped because opening files will jeopardize national security. MORE

Aug. 20, 2014

County grand jury prepares to hear evidence in shooting death of black teenager Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson that touched off 10 days of unrest in Ferguson, Mo; witnesses have given investigators sharply conflicting accounts of the killing; new details on witness accounts emerge as Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr is scheduled to visit to meet with FBI agents who have been conducting civil rights investigation into shooting. MORE

Aug. 20, 2014

News analysis; Pres Obama and Atty Gen Eric J Holder Jr have approached unrest in Ferguson, Mo, from fundamentally different backgrounds and points of view; some African-Americans praise Holder for his outspokenness on issue, and lament or even denounce Obama for his caution and what they see as dispassionate distance. MORE

Jul. 14, 2014

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr expresses 'extreme, extreme concern' over reports that bomb makers from Yemen responsible for 2009 underwear-bomb plot are now in Syria cooperating with foreign militants there; Holder seems to confirm reports that Yemeni bomb makers are working to design small explosive devices, without explicitly saying so. MORE

Jul. 9, 2014

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr implores more European countries to adopt American-style counterterrorism laws and tactics, including undercover stings to prevent potential terrorist from traveling to Syria. MORE

Jun. 11, 2014

Attorney General Eric H Holder Jr sharply criticizes the Boy Scouts of America’s policy that bans gay scout leaders, calling it relic of an age of prejudice and insufficient understanding. MORE

Jun. 2, 2014

Editorial welcomes Atty Gen Eric Holder Jr's assertion that he will not prosecute journalists for their news-gathering activities; notes comments came in response to questions about Justice Dept efforts to compel The New York Times reporter James Risen to testify in trial of former Central Intelligence Agency official Jeffrey Sterling; urges Holder to drop demand that Risen testify about his confidential sources. MORE

May. 28, 2014

Attorney General Eric H Holder Jr hints that Justice Department might choose not to jail New York Times reporter James Risen for defying a subpoena forcing him to discuss his confidential sources; prosecutors say that Jeffrey Sterling, former Central Intelligence Agency official, was source for chapter in Risen's 2006 book State of War. MORE

May. 9, 2014

Attorney General Eric H Holder Jr and Education Secretary Arne Duncan issue strong warning to public school districts nationwide not to deny enrollment to immigrant students in country illegally. MORE

May. 3, 2014

Pres Obama directs Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr to review how death penalty is applied in United States at time when it has become increasingly debated; calls botched execution of Clayton Darrell Lockett in Oklahoma 'deeply disturbing,' broaching polarizing subject that he has rarely discussed; observers say comments could foreshadow eventual shift in his position supporting death penalty. MORE

Apr. 10, 2014

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr's long-awaited revisions to the Justice Dept's racial profiling rules would expand the definition of prohibited profiling to include not just race, but religion, national origin, gender and sexual orientation; however, they do not change how Federal Bureau of Investigation uses that information for national security purposes. MORE

Apr. 10, 2014

House Republicans formally ask Attorney Gen Eric H Holder Jr to begin a criminal investigation of Lois Lerner, the former Internal Revenue Service official caught up in the scandal over political targeting of Tea Party groups. MORE

Apr. 2, 2014

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr makes a high-profile visit to New York City to meet with federal prosecutors who won the conviction of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, former top aide to Osama bin Laden; he forcefully reiterates at a news conference his view that case proves terrorism trials can occur safely in the city. MORE

Mar. 30, 2014

Editorial applauds Atty Gen Eric Holder Jr's announcement of new requirements for federally financed halfway houses, part of his aggressive push for reform in criminal justice system; submits that even better solution may be to send fewer low-risk offenders to prison in first place. MORE

Mar. 29, 2014

Attorney General Eric H Holder Jr says that federal government will recognize more than 300 same-sex marriages that were performed in Michigan; announcement caps a period of rapid change and legal uncertainty over status of same-sex marriage in the state. MORE

Mar. 14, 2014

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr is endorsing proposal that would reduce prison sentences for people convicted of dealing drugs, latest sign of Obama administration's retrenchment in the so-called war on drugs; United States Sentencing Commission had proposed changing federal guidelines to lessen average sentence by about one year, to 51 months from 62 months. MORE

Mar. 4, 2014

Feb. 28, 2014

Justice Department says Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr was taken to the hospital after experiencing faintness and shortness of breath at a meeting. MORE

Feb. 25, 2014

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr declares that state attorneys general who believe laws banning same-sex marriage are discriminatory are not obligated to defend them; statement prompts criticism from Republicans who say attorneys general have duty to stand behind their state laws, even if they do not agree with them; Holder's highly unusual assertion thrusts Obama administration into center of emotional debate. MORE

Feb. 15, 2014

Editorial calls on Atty Gen Eric Holder Jr to fulfill his pledge to uphold freedom of the press and call off prosecutors' quest to compel New York Times reporter James Risen to reveal a confidential source; holds Justice Department's stance is sharply at odds with case law and near-universal consensus, and with policy revisions that Holder himself proposed in July 2013. MORE

Feb. 12, 2014

Editorial praises Atty Gen Eric Holder Jr for voicing criticism of states whose outdated laws continue to disenfranchise felons after they have served their sentences; contends that the restoration of the right to vote should be automatic, as soon as a person is released from prison. MORE

Feb. 9, 2014

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr is preparing to issue policies aimed at eliminating distinction between same- and opposite-sex married couples in the federal criminal justice system; changes will result in federal government treating married same-sex couples same as heterosexual couples when they file for bankruptcy, testify in court or visit family in prison. MORE

Jan. 24, 2014

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr says United States is willing to discuss how the criminal case against Edward J Snowden will be handled, but only if Snowden pleads guilty first. MORE

Jan. 24, 2014

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr is to decide by Jan 31 if he will seek the death penalty for accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is awaiting trial. MORE

Jan. 24, 2014

Atty Gen Eric H Holder Jr says lawful marijuana businesses should have access to the American banking system and that the government will soon offer rules to help them gain it. MORE

Oct. 20, 2013

A tentative $13 billion settlement between JPMorgan and the Justice Department was a result of extensive personal outreach from Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chief executive, to the Justice Department. MORE

Sep. 26, 2013

Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, met with the attorney general to discuss a deal that would involve a fine of more than $7 billion, plus $4 billion in relief for struggling homeowners. MORE